"Tell me Doctor, where are we going this time?
Is this the '50s or 1999?…So take me away,
I don't mind, but you better promise me,
I'll be back in time!…"—Back in Time, Huey Lewis & The News
I don't know where I'm goin'
But I sure know where I've been
Hanging on the promises in songs of yesterday
And I've made up my mind
I ain't wasting no more time
Here I go again
Here I go again
The slight hiss of the cassette tape that crackled behind Whitesnake's Here I Go Again, rattled throughout the well-worn, paint-peeling Jeep Wrangler. The lyrics of the classic '80s ballad filled the car with passionate words, flowing over Katherine as she tapped along to the song, soundlessly singing along and just quietly rocking out to the tune.
Though I keep searchin' for an answer
I never seem to find what I'm lookin' for
Oh Lord, I pray you give me strength to carry on
Slowly cruising down the road, Katherine left her gaze to wander over the changing landscape. Not much had changed since the last time she had been home, and yet at the same time, everything had changed. It was almost like coming home to Old Derry, and yet being a tourist in the New Derry. It was all very confusing.
'Cause I know what it means
To walk along the lonely street of dreams
And here I go again on my own
Goin' down the only road I've ever known
Like a drifter, I was born to walk alone
And I've made up my mind
It was odd being back in Derry after so long. The last time she had been home was at the turn of the century, when girls walked around drenched in Impulse deodorant and boys drowned themselves in Old Spice. Back when she'd watch reruns of Ab Fab on the TVs that stood in the front window of Tommy's TV's or browse through the multitude of stores that were housed in the mini-mall that popped up one year in Richard's Alley.
I ain't wasting no more time
Just another heart in need of rescue
Waiting on love's sweet charity
And I'm gonna hold on for the rest of my days
Wow, it really has changed. Katherine mused as she cruised down the main road, her gaze roving over everything that had popped up along the landscape. Back in the day, Derry had been a big town, but not much more. There had been maybe thirty thousand people inside the entire Derry boundary and then maybe another seven thousand in the surround burgs. But that was it.
Now though? Now it had become a —very—small city (when in comparison to London or New York). The little Maine city seemed to be doing just fine though, considering that Portland—the state's largest city—could only boast barely three thousand people.
'Cause I know what it means
To walk along the lonely street of dreams
And here I go again on my own
Goin' down the only road I've ever known
Like a drifter, I was born to walk alone
And I've made up my mind
Passing over the canal and slowly cruising down Main street, Katherine turned onto Center street. A pang of dismay sounded in Katherine's heart as she saw how much had really changed in her little town. When she had been growing up, Derry had felt rather cold and hard like it didn't give a shit whether you lived or died.
So this dismay to see her hometown turned into…this utopia? It almost felt like she was an old woman looking through pictures of her glory days. Was this dismay because of all the changes that she hadn't been there for? All the things they'd changed in her absence? Or was it because of the little bits of character that made Derry, home, were now gone?
I ain't wasting no more time
But here I go again
Here I go again
Here I go again
Here I go again
Here I go!
The Bijou Theatre was gone, replaced with a parking lot branded with a shiny new sign (BY PERMIT ONLY! VIOLATORS SUBJECT TO TOW!). The Shoeboat and Bailey's Lunch, which had been sandwiched in next to it, were also gone. They had been replaced with a branch of Northern National Bank; displaying a digital readout that showed the time and temperature (in both Celsius and Fahrenheit).
Moving further along, the Center Street Drug, Mr Keene's lair and the place where Katherine had first laid eyes upon the Losers, was still there although it had been given a new lick of paint. All around her, Katherine noticed the new shiny new stores sandwiched between the old heritage buildings she had grown up with. Like the music store, an all-natural foods store and a toy's & games store.
'Cause I know what it means
To walk along the lonely street of dreams
And here I go again on my own
Goin' down the only road I've ever known
Like a drifter, I was born to walk alone
And I've made up my mind
Though that's to say, it hadn't all changed. The depressing parade of banks and carparks melted into the dust as the Jeep rattled on; climbing further up Center street; Katherine's lips pulled upwards when she noticed the Aladdin Theatre was still there. The theatre held many memories for the hunter: fingers dipped in buttery popcorn, lips meeting in the dark, peeling shoes from the sticky floor, running from cinema to cinema…
Drifting further along the road, Katherine spotted the Derry Home Hospital. When she had been a kid, it was no more than a white-washed wood frame building that had held two wings and three floors. By the time she had left, they were just adding another section onto it. "That's a few more than last time" Katherine murmured as her eyes picked out a whole complex of new buildings that surrounded the original, complete with a parking lot off to the left. It was almost the same size as a college campus by this point.
I ain't wasting no more time
And here I go again on my own
Goin' down the only road I've ever known
Like a drifter, I was born to walk alone
'Cause I know what it means
To walk along the lonely street of dreams
And here I go again!
Rolling past Derry Mall, Katherine noticed with a pang of sadness—as she had on many an occasion—that the great long field of nodding sunflowers and long lanky grasses which marked the northeastern end of the Barrens had been mowed down in order to accommodate the large building. Memories of days spent frolicking in the long swishing grass flitted through her mind as she drove. Days where the Losers would explore the field, picking apart the old 'relics' they found leftover from the Kitchener Ironworks explosion in 1906.
She remembered an old cellar out there too, the one that led down to the site of the explosion and how Richie would often taunt them about going down there. Eddie would fire back something about diseases and Katherine would lean over the edge, giving either Beverly or Bill a heart attack. Sometimes Ben would bring up something historical about the explosion and Mike would try his best to avoid the topic of fire and burning bodies. All of them refused to talk about IT, and did their uttermost best to skirt the topic whenever it arose.
The cassette tape rolled over into the next song as she pulled into the carpark of the Jade Palace. The Chinese restaurant—complete with red plastic pagodas—had sprung up during her tenth grade, and had quickly become a staple hangout for the local teens. Katherine could remember cringey first dates spent cracking open cheesy fortune cookies and slurping up noodles as daintily as possible, before they hooked up in the parking lot or went to the movies. It wasn't exactly a classy joint, but it was the best Derry had.
Dusk had fallen by the time Katherine finally decided to enter the restaurant. First, she had watched each of the elder Losers arrive with a feeling of apprehension curled up in her gut. Bill had arrived first; after tipping his cabbie, the man disappeared inside with tensed shoulders and stiff upperback. Not much seemed to have changed about him, their leader still wore dirt brown locks and moved as they he carried the weight of the world on his shoulders.
Next came Eddie, he too appeared the same, if older. He had taken a large suck on the inhaler buried deep in his pocket, before he stepped across the threshold and waved down a waitress where he no doubt began to list his various ailments. Just as he had been as a child, Eddie was a thin man, sallow-skinned and rather pedantic about his various 'gazebo' ailments.
Then there was Beverly. She had grown much taller, though she had kept her golden hair short. Dressed simply, the woman stood before the doors of the restaurant filled with fear and apprehension as she clutched tight the straps of her large handbag. No sooner had she arrived, did Ben and Richie had turned up as well.
Katherine couldn't catch the words shared between the three, but she was impressed to see how they had changed. Where Ben had been a rather pudgy child, he was now tall and slim, easily towering over Beverly. Richie appeared the same. He wore the same coke-bottle glasses that he had as a kid, he walked the same and let's be honest, he probably sounded the same as well. If the sounds of laughter was anything to go by. She had yet to see Stanley or Mike arrive. But knowing Mike, he was likely already inside. She didn't know where Stanley was.
"All right" Katherine breathed, her eyes focused on the shiny red store through her windscreen, "You can do this, you can do this. It's just dinner, you can do dinner" Heaving another sigh, Katherine quickly checked herself over in the rearview mirror. Her loose auburn curls had been chopped short into a pixie cut that sat messily around her face, as if she had just arisen from bed. A quick tug at her many layers, helped the collar of her flannel shirt to lay flat overtop of the large grey knitted sweater she wore. "Yeah, that'll do" Tucking her leather-bound wallet and keys into the back pocket of her jeans, Katherine pulled herself from the Jeep and after squaring her shoulders headed inside.
Inside, she was met with a server who led her to the booth that Mike had hired for the seven of them. Looking around, not much had changed. Red still bled through everything—from the plates to the ornaments—a large golden gong sat in one corner and a multitude of circular tables were scattered throughout the restaurant.
"…Any dietary requirements?" The serve politely asked Katherine as she gazed around.
"Uh, no-no. I'm all good, thanks" Katherine replied absentmindedly, her gaze immediately going to the elder Losers already gathered around their table, "Fuck! You guys are old!"
"Who're you?" Richie nodded towards Katherine as the Losers turned to face her. Mike was the only one whose face lit up when she arrived.
"C'me on Trashmouth, it hasn't been that long" Katherine grinned.
"Kat!" Mike strode forth to hug the short woman, easily enveloping her in his arms, "It's good to see you!"
"You too, Mike!" Katherine returned the hug, her arms not quite reaching all the way around.
"…Midget?" Richie piped up as his eyes roved up and down her form, "You're still so tiny!"
"I'm 35, what's your excuse?" Katherine grinned.
"It's good to see you, Kat" Beverly came next, hugging the younger woman close until she was practically squeezing her.
"You too, Bev" Katherine smiled into the elder girl's shoulder.
DONG!
The sound of the gong echoed throughout the small restaurant, pulling everyone from their conversations. Richie turned back from the ringing gong, "This meeting of the Losers' Club has officially begun!" He decreed as the group gathered to make their tentative greetings to one another.
"Ha! Who are these guys?" Eddie joked, though it fell a little flat. Next to him, Bill and Mike stood watching the quartet as they entered and exchanged pleasantries.
It didn't take long for things to get underway, the evening easily shifting into joy-filled laughter and old taunts shared between friends. Plates of food spun on the Lazy Susan in the middle of the table and booze was knocked back like water as the Losers laughed and ate, catching up on all the years they had missed.
"…So wait, Eddie you got married?" Richie repeated, after knocking back a shot and dropping the empty glass to the table.
"Yeah. Why is that so fucking funny, dickwad?" Eddie fired back defensively.
"What? To, like, a woman?"
"Fuck you, bro"
"Fuck you!"
"Alright, what about you, Trashmouth?" Bill interjected, "You married?"
"There's no way Richie's married!" Beverly laughed around her chopsticks.
"No I got married" Richie replied.
"Rich, I don't believe it"
"When?" Eddie added and Ben was trying his hardest not to grin as Richie replied.
"You not hear this?" Richie turned to Eddie completely serious, "You didn't know I got married? Yeah, no, me and your mom are very, very happy together—" Richie joked. Katherine—who had been drinking her beer at the time—practically spat it back into the glass and out of her nose at the predictable joke.
"Fuck you" Eddie said.
"—She's very sweet—" Richie continued, "—Sometimes, sh-she'll put her arm around me and she'll whisper to me, she'll go 'beso gobaka meesa wookie"
"Yes, we all get it! My mom is a great, big, fat person—" Katherine winced at this but the grin on her face didn't fade, "—Hilarious. Hysterical" All around her laughter filled the air, as the Losers fell back into the familiar roles they had once inhabited as kids.
"Wait, let's talk about the elephant not in the room" Richie piped up, this time turning his attention to Ben across the table, "Ben, what the fuck, man?"
"Yeah, okay, okay, obviously, I lost a few pounds" Ben admitted.
"Yeah, no shit"
"A few?"
"Yeah, obviously"
"You're like a—you're hot!" Richie reiterated, "You're like every single Brazilian soccer player wrapped up into one person. Gorgeous!"
"Leave him alone, you're embarrassing him!" Beverly scolded lightly.
"Okay, okay, alright, please, c'me on. Is Stanley coming tonight or what?" Ben gestured to the empty chair on Katherine's right.
"Stanley…" Eddie sat back in his chair, as he tried to remember the last member of their group. Katherine's eyes wandered around the table, shifting from person to person as she watched their confused and blank faces turn to the chair next to her. Only Mike wore a fond smile as he remembered the sun-kissed Jewish boy.
"Stan…Stan Uris…" Richie trailed as he tried to remember his friend.
"Stan Urine!" Both he and Bill chorused, as the boy suddenly popped into their minds.
"Stanley Urine! No, no, he's a fucking pussy. He's not gonna show" Richie chuckled, rubbing his hands in front of him.
"Why would Stanley save you anyway?" Eddie agreed, "Was I not the one who basically performed surgery on you…after Bowers cut you up! Holy shit! That's right!"
"Please tell me, you ended up becoming a doctor Ed?" Katherine asked.
"No, I uh, ended up becoming a risk analysis" Eddie replied, looking away.
"That sounds really interesting—" Richie couldn't help but taunt, "—What does that entail?"
"Yeah, so I work for like a big insurance firm—"
"Zzzzz!" Richie leant back in his chair and fake snored, cutting through Eddie's explanation much to the amusement of the others.
"Fuck you, dude. Fuck you"
"Was this job invented before fun?"
"Oh that's so not funny!"
"It is funny!"
"What the fuck are you laughing at?!" This time Eddie turned on Bill who had been trying to smother his laughter into his glass.
"What about you, Kat?" Mike asked the hunter, effectively cutting through the squabble between the two boys.
"Hm?" Katherine hummed around the rim on her glass as she drank the last dregs of her beer.
"What did you end up doing after Derry?"
"Uh, well, I went to college" Katherine lied. She had created the story beforehand and learnt all the ins and outs of it, before she was confident enough to tell it. As Pops (another hunter) had always said: Always be specific when you lie.
"Really? Where'd ya go?" Bill piped up.
"Uh, Wichita State"
"Ba-na-now-now-now-now-now! Ba-na-now-now-now-now-now!" Richie imitated the sound of banjo, "Yer way out in the boondocks there, lassie!"
"Yeah, no kidding! What d'ya study way out there? How to get to Oz?" Eddie laughed.
"Oh ha ha!" Katherine snarked, "Nah, I, uh, studied cryptozoology" Which is not entirely wrong.
"What's that?"
"It's basically the study of myths and legends, y'know, stuff like Bigfoot and what not"
"So what? You're like some kind of crazy kid with a tinfoil hat, sitting in a basement as you comb through the conspiracy sites?" Richie teased
"Nah" Katherine laughed, "I'm an exterminator"
"What like the guys who pull dead squirrels outta your heating vent?"
"Yeah, that's me" Katherine grinned, "Squirrel collector extraordinaire!"
"Eurgh! Do you know how many disease that rodents even carry?" Eddie paled at the thought.
"Yeah, do you?" Katherine laughed.
"I propose a toast—" Beverly interjected with a smile before the two could go off on a tangent, raising her half-empty bottle in the air, "—To the Losers"
It didn't take long for the rest of the meal and evening to melt away, and soon enough the glasses & plates were cleared and a bowl of fortune cookies was brought over to the table. By this point, it was dark outside and Katherine had completely forgotten about the whole reason as to why the Losers had reunited in their home town.
Cracking open her fortune cookie, Katherine left the rolled up fortune on the table as she nibbled on her cookie and listened to Eddie ramble endlessly on about something he had read somewhere on the internet. That was until Ben piped up, having been listening in on Beverly and Bill's conversation.
"…It's weird right?" Ben spoke up, "Now that we're all here, everything just comes back faster and faster. I mean all of it"
"Did-did you know that when Mike called me, I threw up?" Richie added, "Innit that weird? Like I got nervous. Like I got sick and I threw up. I mean, I feel fine now, I feel relieved to be here with you guys…" Everyone turned to focus their attentions of Richie, all of the solemn and withdrawn as they each remembered their own reactions to the call, "…Why's everybody looking at me like this?"
"When Mike called me, I crashed my car" Eddie admitted.
"Seriously?" Bill asked.
"Yeah"
"Shit, man I hear ya" Ben said, "I mean my heart, was literally like pounding right out of my chest"
"I was just numb, y'know?" Katherine spoke quietly as all eyes turned to her, "Like I couldn't believe it was real"
"I thought it was only me" Beverly murmured next.
"It was like pure f-f-f-f—" Bill stuttered.
"Fear" Mike ended, "It's fear, what you felt"
"Why'd we all feel like that?" Bill asked.
"…"
"You remember something we don't, don't'cha Mike?"
"Something happens when you leave this town…the farther away, the hazier it gets. But me, I never left. So yeah, I remember, I remember all of it"
"…Pennywise?" Beverly suddenly whispered, her face falling and growing ashen as the memory popped into her mind. All around her, the rest of the Losers bore similar expressions as they too, remembered the nightmare that lurked beneath Derry.
"Oh, the fucking the clown!" Eddie murmured.
"Oh shit" Ben whispered, shifting in his seat.
"Mikey, you said you wanted our help with something" Katherine leant forward, placing both of her elbows onto the table as she did so, "What was that?"
"There's an echo here in Derry—" Mike explained, "—IT bounces back, every twenty-seven years—"
"What—what d'ya mean? What are you talking about?" Eddie interjected.
"Hold on, hold on. Just listen" Mike replied, "We thought we stopped IT back then, we thought IT was done—"
"Mike—" Richie tried as Mike began to furiously shift through the pages of the book in front of him. Leaning across the table, Katherine pulled the notebook over to her and began to flick through the highly detailed pages. From the drawings of IT to the accounts of missing children, and the historical clippings that Ben had shown them way back when.
"—A week ago a man was slaughtered: Adrian Mellon. A girl: Lisa Albran, went missing the other night—"
"Mike!"
"—There will be others and there will be more!"
"Alright! That's enough!"
"All right, just calm down man. Just calm down" Ben tried to placate Mike as he got more and more worked up.
"Why don't we get another drink?" Bill suggested.
"Just let him explain, let him explain" Ben replied as things quieted down.
"That echo?" Mike spoke calmly like nothing had happened before, "We might've changed it, just like it changed us. We didn't stop IT because IT just bounced back" He met every single pair of eyes around the table as he spoke and Katherine felt like he was staring into her soul when he did, "We made an oath. That's why I brought you back, that's why you're here. To finish IT, for good"
"…Well, that shit got dark fast. Thanks, Mike" Richie muttered. Always count on Richie to brighten the mood. Katherine's lips pulled upwards slightly.
CR~ACK!
"My fortune cookie just says 'Could' Eddie quietly changed the topic.
"They don't know how to do fortune cookies here, mine just says 'Guess' " Richie tacked on.
"They used to be better" Katherine supplied, holding up her own, "Mine just says 'I' "
"Give your fortunes here" Bill instructed as he cleared a space on the table for all of them to go. Katherine easily handed hers over. Mike had 'It', Bill's was 'Not' and Ben had 'Cut'
"I Guess It Could Not Cut?" Richie tried, switching the papers around.
"It Could Not Guess I?" Eddie tried.
"Yeah, but then what about Cut?" Ben retorted.
"When it says 'It' is it talking about IT? Is that what it means?" Eddie questioned a little hysterically.
Each of the boys were talking over each other, their voices growing louder and louder as they demanded their voices to be heard. The sentences that the fortunes created made very little sense and that was when Katherine realised that Beverly had yet to put hers in.
"Beverly?" Katherine asked, her soft voice cutting through the boys' like a hot knife through butter. Ashen-faced and full of apprehension, Beverly placed her fortune on the table, where it revealed the word 'Stanley'. Wordlessly, Bill shifted the words around one last time until the form the final sentence:
I Guess Stanley Could Not Make It
"Oh shit" Katherine breathed, falling back into her chair as she ran a hand down her face.
"Why does it say Stanley?" Eddie pursued, looking around the room for any kind of answer but he got none. "Why won't anyone fucking answer me?!"
Mike went to answer when the table gave an almighty heave, rattling the glassware and bowl of cookies still sitting there. "Whoa!" Katherine scooted her chair back from the table as the leftover cookies in the bowl began to shake and crack as if they were hatching eggs.
"What the fuck is that?!" Richie cried as one of the fortune cookies revealed a maggot-like creature with the face of a wailing baby.
"Shit!" Katherine jumped out of her seat, knocking the chair to the floor behind her as the tiny little creature rapidly moved across the table like some kind of little alien. Next came an eyeball that moved using its nerves, then the spindly wing of a bat burst from one shell sending the Losers scurrying backwards.
Why did I leave my gun in the car?! Katherine panicked, as she darted forward to grab a butterknife from the table, before leaping backwards as the bowl of cookies bled molten tar all over the table. The monstrous little nightmares popped up in the aquarium and gong behind them as well. There were floating heads that bobbed like apples in the water and tar-covered greasy fingers that peered around the edges of the golden gong although there were no traces of the body to be found. Panic quickly filled the room and it didn't take long for things to truly escalate.
Katherine quickly pinned the one-winged bat to the wall with the butter knife, where the knife became buried up to the hilt mere inches from Eddie's face.
"Thanks Kat" Eddie squeaked, darting away from the creature that still squirmed in its hold, just as Mike hefted one of the chairs over his shoulder and beat it down on the table, all the while repeating that it "…wasn't real! It's not real!"
Unsurprisingly, all their commotion brought one of the lovely servers over to their booth. No sooner had she arrived, did the nightmarish creatures disappear as if they had never been there to begin with. They all sheepishly turned to the woman who stood at the threshold as if she was about to scold them like a mother would her naughty children. Richie—always quick on his feet—made up an excuse that seemed to work, if only just barely. "Could we get the cheque?"
Not two minutes later, the Losers were striding out of the Jade Palace as if they couldn't wait to get out of there. Katherine, who had disappeared off to the bathroom for a moment or two, returned just in time to see a kid's parents glaring at Richie as they walked away. Not gonna touch that. Katherine thought, as she side-stepped the small family and joined the others out on the curb while Beverly made a call. Thankful that Beverly put the call on speakerphone, Katherine and the other Losers listened in as Beverly talked to Mrs Uris.
"Hello, Mrs Uris? My name's Beverly Marsh. I apologise for calling, but I'm an old friend of your husband's" Beverly introduced. Off to the side, Richie and Eddie ganged up on Mike.
"You lied to us! That's not okay, man!" Eddie declared, getting up in Mike's face before he walked away.
"Yeah, first words outta your mouth shoulda been 'Hey man, you wanna come to Derry and get murdered?' Cause then I woulda said no" Richie added.
"Guys, shh!" Katherine pressed a finger to her lips, quietly scolding the older two as she turned to Beverly.
"Oh…he passed" Mrs Uris' frail voice crackled through the phone. Katherine felt her stomach drop at those words. Not Stanley. Katherine mourned as tears pricked in her eyes. Out of all of the Losers, Stan had been one of the ones she was most close to.
"When did it happen?" Beverly asked.
"Yesterday. It was horrible the way he died…His wrists were slit in the bathtub…!…I'm sorry, I have to go!" Mrs Uris whimpered.
"W-we're all very sorry"
"Th-thank you"
Grief gripped Katherine in a tight hold as her thoughts revolved around that one call. Stanley…died? But—but…it's Stanley! He shouldn't be dead! He wouldn't! We were all supposed to be here! Katherine thought turning from the others as they dissolved into two groups—those who would go with Mike to see this through and those who would go back to the town house and then get the hell out of Derry.
Somehow, Katherine's feet brought her back to her beloved Jeep where she then put the vehicle into drive; her mind all hazy and tears streaming down her face. It wasn't until she brought the car to a stop in front of the abandoned Bowers' home that she allowed herself to give into her grief. Great big hacking sobs ripped from her throat and ugly globs of snot ran from her nose as Katherine gripped tight to the steering wheel and let her emotions out.
Please…! Not Stanley! Not my brother!
